Wireless router recommendation

[Bob Crabtree]

Yesterday, the Buffalo wireless cable router and the Virgin Media installers all turned up in good time, so I'm writing this via a faster (2Mb) internet connection and using quite different hardware than before.

Everything is now working well but the broadband installation was less than straightforward because of some little things that Virgin didn't do - like create an internet account for me!

I've done a blog about the experience, which you may care to read:

Bob gets Virgin Media broadband & TV but is less than impressed with the installation

[noTHINGface]

Good to hear that you got this sorted Bob. Just to add that the Buffalo router I bought is still running strong and I have not had a single problem with it. I'm an IT PM and have been recommending the Buffalo kit to people here at work and all of them have had an easy ride with it, a couple even bought the corresponding Buffalo PCI card that boosts the transfer speeds. Simple and affective.

[Bob Crabtree]

Good to hear that you got this sorted Bob. Just to add that the Buffalo router I bought is still running strong and I have not had a single problem with it. I'm an IT PM and have been recommending the Buffalo kit to people here at work and all of them have had an easy ride with it, a couple even bought the corresponding Buffalo PCI card that boosts the transfer speeds. Simple and affective.

Well a week or so down the line and still seems just fine!

[jamin]

Bob, am a Core network engineer for Virgin. If you have any probs let me know and I will see what I can do. Glad the install went OK as this is where things normally go wrong! (Thanks to a solely contract based install team)

edit: should have read blog first!

Have never heard of the broadband pin you had to request, however, I have never used the install CD. Behind that Router you shouldn't need to use it unless you want the (no comment) VM anti spyware/virus bundle. Your modem should assign an IP and connect to the internet once the kit you connect is set to obtain IP by dhcp.

Unfortunate about the mess/crap drilling by installers, but if you call up and state that you are unhappy with the install VM will send another crew to put things right. (Can't promise a contract or inhouse guy though) But the repair will probaly consist of polyfiller and or silicone sealant. Many (11) years ago I used to install cable and although I'm not sticking up for a poo job, I know how hard I was pushed.

Drop me a PM if you are still having probs mate, I will do my best to help out!

[Bob Crabtree]

Bob, am a Core network engineer for Virgin. If you have any probs let me know and I will see what I can do. Glad the install went OK as this is where things normally go wrong! (Thanks to a solely contract based install team)

edit: should have read blog first!

Have never heard of the broadband pin you had to request, however, I have never used the install CD. Behind that Router you shouldn't need to use it unless you want the (no comment) VM anti spyware/virus bundle. Your modem should assign an IP and connect to the internet once the kit you connect is set to obtain IP by dhcp.

Unfortunate about the mess/crap drilling by installers, but if you call up and state that you are unhappy with the install VM will send another crew to put things right. (Can't promise a contract or inhouse guy though) But the repair will probaly consist of polyfiller and or silicone sealant. Many (11) years ago I used to install cable and although I'm not sticking up for a poo job, I know how hard I was pushed.

Drop me a PM if you are still having probs mate, I will do my best to help out!

Thanks for the posting!

Truth is, I'm not overly worried about the dodgy drilling - one of the places is usually hidden and if I do end up getting hacked off with the grommets coming out, I'll whack some skludge on to stick 'em in place.

But, I did think that I had to tell people what happened - contrast the reality with the hype about customer care that I heard Branson and the two ntl guys give out at the public launch (and repeatedly thereafter).

My real issue is the supplied CD - and why it is an issue is that I know for sure that 95%-plus of people who encountered the problem that I did would have been seriously distressed and very angry with Virgin.

And that, surely, is a situation the Virgin must want to avoid.

It appears quite possible (or should that be likely?) that every Virgin cable customer is being supplied with an inappropriate CD - and I have described in this blog the problems my having the wrong CD caused.

So, if you want to do anything, it might be to draw the attention of the powers-that-be at Virgin to this blog.

That way, just maybe, they'll check the score with CDs and ensure either that a new CD is created specifically for cable customers or they make quite clear on the CD and its packaging and instructions what type of broadband installation the CD is intended to be used for - cable or ADSL (assuming, that is, there actually are two quite separate installer CD packages that are being confused).

If you could do that - and if such changes are implemented - then I'd regard my time in writing and adding further comments to this blog as time well spent.

Oh, but what Virgin also needs to do, I believe, is make some of its deals more attractive.

I honestly don't think I would have switched to Virgin if I had noticed the small print about the 6p-a-time connection fee that is added for each chargeable phone call.

Similarly, I don't think that the deal offered with the M phone package - free calls only at weekends - is very competitive or attractive either.

What I find odd is that the company offers packages to non-cable users that look to be considerably more attractive than it offers to cable users.

The classic is that the two-for-£20 phone+broadbad cable deal gets you 2Mb broadband and free phone calls only at the weekends, whereas the £20 ADSL+phone deal gets you 8MB and broadband, plus free UK 01/02 calls around the clock every day of the week.

Okay, I know that people who sign up for that phone-based deal will also be paying out £11 a month to BT for line rental, so the real total is £31 per month.

However, Virgin needs to offer a comparable deal for cable which costs significantly less than £31 - and currently, it seems not to do so - which seems just peverse considering it owns the entire system that its cable customers use, so must be able to afford to offer better value than it currently does.

People are going to be seriously hacked off (as I have now become) if they realise that the cable deal they've signed up for is in most ways considerably inferior to the phone-based deals the company offers.

And emphasising that point - if I were in a non-cable area and had wanted to spend less than £20 per month for that 8Mb/free-calls deal, I could have instead spent £15 per month (£26 in total) for a deal that gets me:

Up to 8Mb
Unlimited downloads
Free evening and weekend calls to 01/02 numbers

And even that, I think, is greatly more attactive than 2Mb+free weekend calls.

What I'll now be doing, is experimenting with Skype Prog, which looks like it will let me make UK-based calls on week days and week-day evenings for a great deal less than I would be paying with the M phone cable package.

If I find the service satisfactory, then I will very likely arrange things so that all non-weekend calls go via Skype - and my doing that is going to mean that Virgin gets no money at all from me for phone calls, which isn't I think, quite what the company would be wanting.

Better, surely, to have offered me a deal that costs me more on a monthly basis (which gives Virgin a guaranteed income) but is more attractive to me because I get free landline calls every day and every evening.

[Bob Crabtree]

Just to add - I ordered yet another of these Buffalo wireless routers today, plus the matching hi-speed PCI wireless adaptor.

Hopefully, the router will work just as well with with an AOL ADSL modem, which has just one connector for a PC - Ethernet (and not USB).

[Vowo]

If I find the service satisfactory, then I will very likely arrange things so that all non-weekend calls go via Skype

May I enquire into how the Skype route went please?

(thinking of doing this myself)

[Bob Crabtree]

The Buffalo router did work okay with the AOL broadband modem.

As for Skype, please see my next posting.

[Bob Crabtree]

May I enquire into how the Skype route went please?

(thinking of doing this myself)

All outgoing (ie SkypeOut) calls seem to be just fine - I'm using a Philips VOIP841 - as reviewed here.

However, I've been highly unimpressed with incoming calls from landlines or mobiles routed to my UK SkypeIn number.

The voices of callers ringing me on my UK SkypeIn number have too often been indistinct and tended to break up (ie you hear a bit, then miss a bit, then hear a bit, then miss a bit).

I've made no attempt at all to see if there are ways I can improve the quality of SkypeIn calls (not even doing an internet search) but think I probably need to check that out, in case there are ways to optimise the quality that I'm unaware of.

[jamin]

Bob, thats some great feedback mate. And I have taken the CD issue and raised it, will update you when I hear back.

So far as the package deals/prices go, I have to admit that they change so often I can't keep up. Working where I do within the company, honestly, I don't really see what offers are currently being sold and when they do change I have no contact with anyone who knows. I just fix the backbone network when it goes wrong and try to ensure that bandwidth is available on demand.

[Larkspeed]

From personal experience and from talking to others that use the Netgear WGR614 I would have to rate that as a terrible router.

We had constant trouble with ours with it just locking up for no apparent reason and having to be reset.

This could happen once a week or five times a day there was just no pattern to it so there was no real way to troubleshoot why it was doing it.

The buffalo airstations where they are good reliable routers I found the one we had very lacking on features.

I would have to say if you are going to buy a wireless router stick with the three companies that seem to have got it right. Linksys, D-Link and belkin in that order

[Dreaming]

I just bought an edimax that was on today only from scan, and although it's got an ugly interface, it's reliability, signal strength, features and security are all superior to the linksys it replaced. Also got a friend one (£37 for an adsl router) and it worked fine with AOL, changed no settings, just entered the username and password - and I was nervous because I know AOL can be a bit proprietry at times.

As for Virgin, we're an NTL customer, managed to negotiate a 2mb deal for £10 as we've been with them for years, we're considering getting our TV through them now as well as sky is a bit dire these days, but again, the package deals don't look that attractive (I think we again, threatened to leave sky, and have all the channels and sky+ for £15 I think).

I use skype a bit, but couldn't replace the main phone with it, I use it mainly to make calls with my girlfriend for long periods whilst I'm at uni, as for £2 a month I get unlimited calls to her housephone, also got a skypein number that does work (although I bought it before the skypepro offer ), so it works out much cheaper than using the university phone cards.

Also, when on the phone for an hour or more, using a headset is SO much more comfortable than ye old yellow corded bt phone .

[Apex]

Just to add - I ordered yet another of these Buffalo wireless routers today, plus the matching hi-speed PCI wireless adaptor.

Hopefully, the router will work just as well with with an AOL ADSL modem, which has just one connector for a PC - Ethernet (and not USB).

So your going to try and use a cable router with a adsl modem ?

It won't work.....*

Far simpler to get a adsl router which is a combined router/modem

*unless you spend ages messing around with the different ecapsulation settings

[Bob Crabtree]

So your going to try and use a cable router with a adsl modem ?

It won't work.....*

*unless you spend ages messing around with the different ecapsulation settings

Wrong. Or, rather, you are wrong to assume that the Buffalo model is solely a cable router; it's not, it can handle a cable modem or an ADSL modem. And it required no messing about at all.

Far simpler to get a adsl router which is a combined router/modem

I'd agree that it is more elegant since you are only using one box but given that my mate had an ADSL modem (with Ethernet port) supplied "free" by AOL and the cost of the Buffalo router was under £30 delivered, the two-box method was considerably cheaper than the elegant solution.

I forgot to report back here but did do so in another thread.

This is basically what I said:

There were no issues...

What I did was set up AOL using the supplied broadband modem - connected to the PC by Ethernet - then turned off the modem, connected it to the Buffalo router and turned that on again, so that AOL in effect sees it as the PC (which meant I also had to input the AOL user name (including ".aol.com") and password.

Then I connected the PC to router and I was away.

[Bob Crabtree]

Bob, thats some great feedback mate. And I have taken the CD issue and raised it, will update you when I hear back.

Appreciate your doing that!

So far as the package deals/prices go, I have to admit that they change so often I can't keep up.

Working where I do within the company, honestly, I don't really see what offers are currently being sold and when they do change I have no contact with anyone who knows. I just fix the backbone network when it goes wrong and try to ensure that bandwidth is available on demand.

Fully understood.

[Apex]

Wrong. Or, rather, you are wrong to assume that the Buffalo model is solely a cable router; it's not, it can handle a cable modem or an ADSL modem. And it required no messing about at all.



I'd agree that it is more elegant since you are only using one box but given that my mate had an ADSL modem (with Ethernet port) supplied "free" by AOL and the cost of the Buffalo router was under £30 delivered, the two-box method was considerably cheaper than the elegant solution.

I forgot to report back here but did do so in another thread.

This is basically what I said:

Fair enuff Bob, they must have moved forward with things since i last looked.